Witness

In this installation, artist Dan Solomon appropriates and blurs images from historical source materials to explore the nature of photography and memory. Bystanders extracted from the background of Abraham Zapruder’s home movie of the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, serve as silent and innocent witnesses to the violent events that unfolded before them that day. Isolated from their original contexts, these shadowy figures become metaphors for the limits of memory and the difficulties of close looking. Contemplating their ethereal forms invites many thoughts: how memories are shaped by pictures, how eyewitnesses respond and adjust to events, how unreliable the camera is as an accurate record of reality, and how the meaning of representations change with time.

Brian Wallace, Deputy Director/Chief Curator, International Center of Photography
Witness is also on view at the International Center of Photography, New York, NY